News culture The series Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon made a small mistake that really annoys the author: George RR Martin is very picky!
Author George RR Martin has been battling a design flaw that crept into the Game of Thrones series for years before contaminating House of the Dragon. This error still torments the author today, as he recently explained.
George RR Martin’s nightmare
Author George RR Martin maintains ties with his community by writing several posts on his personal blog. On the occasion of the broadcast of episode 4 of the second season of House of the Dragon, the creator of Game of Thrones recently revealed an anecdote about the design of the dragons depicted in his books, while also revealing a design flaw that appears in the Game of Thrones series and its spin-off.
The Targaryen family seal can be seen several times in the series “House of the Dragon”. The Targaryen coat of arms consists of a three-headed dragon with four legs. Except in the version presented by the author, this dragon only has two legs. And this error comes from Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones used the correct two-legged crest for the first four seasons and half of season five, but when Dany’s (Daenerys’) fleet appeared, all the sails featured four-legged dragons. Someone must have been careless. Or someone opened a book on heraldry and read just enough to cover everything. (…) Two years later, the House of the Dragon decided that the heraldry should match Game of Thrones… but they chose the wrong crest instead of the right one.
The desire for realism
Since then, this error has haunted the author, as he explained. To his great dismay, he even clarified that the error ultimately appeared on the latest covers of his books. And as previously mentioned, the writer’s torment arose from his desire for consistency and truthfulness, because he wanted his dragons to “as realistic and believable as such a creature can be‘” as he imagined his own version of his imaginary monsters.
I designed my dragons with great care. They fly and breathe fire, yes, because these features seemed essential to me. They have two legs (not four, never four) and two wings. BIG wings. Many fantasy dragons have ridiculously small wings that would never get such creatures airborne. And only two legs, the wings being the front legs. Four-legged dragons exist only in heraldry. No animal that has ever lived on Earth has six limbs. Birds have two legs and two wings, the same goes for bats, pterosaurs and other flying dinosaurs, etc.
This attention to detail shows how much the author insisted on the coherence and realism of his universe, which certainly contributed to its success. With the development of new spin-offs, including the knight errant, who also has to stage important events in the history of the TargaryensLet’s hope the damage caused by HBO is repaired.
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